Rape in Early Modern England: Law, History and Criticism

ISBN-13: 9783030826086 / Angielski / Twarda / 2021 / 144 str.

Helen Barker

Spis treści

1. Critical Context and History.

The Critical Context

Criticism and Methodology

History

2. The Legal Framework.

Common Law: Ancient, Medieval, Early Modern

Some Sources of Confusion

Bibliography

3. Statute Law.

Rape, Elopement and Abduction

Rape and Elopement After 1487

The Abduction Acts

“History cannot be written from the statute books alone”

Bibliography

4. The Lawes Resolutions Of Womens Rights.

Authorship

Finding a Readership

Law Books and the Print Trade

Publishing The Lawes Resolutions

Rape Law, Criticism and The Lawes Resolutions

Bibliography

5. Conclusion.

O autorze

Helen Barker gained her PhD having studied at the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, UK.

Blurb

This book is intended for those in the humanities seeking a legal context for writing about rape in early modern England. It takes the premise that over the past four decades misunderstandings about rape law, and misreadings of rape statutes from medieval to Elizabethan times, have become widely cited in criticism. Helen Barker identifies how this has arisen, and discusses the main sources of confusion – including indissoluble issues around the word ‘ravishment’. Rape law historically encompassed elopement and abduction; this book offers a succinct overview of the law, and draws attention to the wider social context other than gender opposition in which it is often presented. In addition, critics have been tempted to rely on the ostensibly authoritative seventeenth-century treatise, The Lawes Resolutions of Womens Rights, as a legal source. By examining the context of its publication, this book suggests that the treatise is unreliable and can mislead the unwary.

​Helen Barker gained her PhD having studied at the Shakespeare Institute, University of Birmingham, UK.